ABSTRACT
What was known in the United States during the anti-slavery struggle as the "Underground Railway," best represents all that was aggressive and militant in that contest. This so-called "railway system" was constituted and operated in defiance of law by the Abolitionists. It was Abolition in action. To be more explicit, the Underground Railway was a system of clandestine travel, extending from the borders of "Mason and Dixon's Line" through the North and West to Canada. The residence of Frederick Douglass was one of the last stations on the line before reaching British soil. Belonging to this period of increasing antagonism between pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties was the decision in the Dred Scott case. This, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, taken together, represent the sum of the conservative forces in the nation opposed to the Abolitionists and their cause.
